Packets



June 11, 1968 w 1 so 3,387,736

PACKETS Filed June 2, 1966 Had wanm, cw, wwuu- Jazz iACKETS David Theodore Nelson Williamson, Deptford, London,

England, assignor to Molins Machine Company Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great idritaiu Filed .lune 2, 1966, Ser. No. 554,877

Claims priority, application Great Britain, June 9, 1965,

8 Claims, (Cl. 220-31) ABSTRAQT OF THE DESCLOSURE This invention relates to packets, particularly but not necessarily exclusively packets for cigarettes or like articles.

The packing of cigarettes is typical of many articles, in that for many years packets of paper or thin card have been employed, but in recent times interest has been directed to the possibility of employing packets made of moulded plastic material. Increasing consumpion of plastic material has brought down its price to a level where it is economically possible to employ such material for articles such as cigarette packets which are discarded after being used once. Moreover, plastic moulding technique has reached a stage of development in which a variety of reliable high speed largely automatic machines are available so that production costs in general can be kept low.

One of the advantages of using plastic material in the manufacture of packets for cigarettes and the like is that the majority of plasic materials are substantially moistureimpermeable and therefore articles such as cigarettes can be stored for long periods in such packets without substantial change of moisture content. This is, of course, only true if the packets are properly sealed.

Such a packet, ideally, requires an air tight seal from the time it is filled with cigarettes or the like until the ultimate user desires to commence consumption of its contents. After breakage of the seal by the user, it is desirable that the packet can be conveniently opened and closed as may be required until the contents have all been consumed and the packet is discarded, and at this stage complete sealing is of less consequence.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved packet for cigarettes or the like which can be very efiiciently sealed for storage but in which the seal is such that once the packet has been opened, it may be repeatedly opened and closed without difliculty.

According to the invention, a packet for cigarettes or the like is provided comprising a lid and a body both of plastic material, in which said lid has an edge portion adapted to overlie said body when the lid is closed and a tear strip integral with and lying between said edge portion and the remainder of the lid, said tear strip being bounded by weak bands to permit removal of the tear strip to disconnect the edge portion from the remainder of the lid.

Such a packet after filling with cigarettes or other articles, has its lid closed and the edge portion of the lid is then sealed to the body by any convenient means; for example, heat may be applied to weld the edge portion to 1, tatQS P3126 t the body, adhesive may be employed, or a form of welding may be produced by the application of a tool whose tip is vibrated at ultrasonic frequency. When the filled and sealed packet reaches its ultimate user, he may open the packet by removing the tear strip, after which the lid can be opened and closed as desired. Removal of the tear strip is performed by a peeling action and preferably said tear strip has a protruding portion which may be gripped when the tear strip is to be removed.

The invention may be applied with particular advantage to packets of the hinged-lid or flip-top form. With such a packet, the lid has a hinged connection to the body, said hinged connection extending across a substantial part if not the whole of the width of a rear wall of the packet, and the tear strip need only extend along the free edge of the lid, although said tear strip may include a small projection at one or both ends of said free edge for convenient removal.

Such a packet may readily be formed by a plastic moulding operation, requiring only that the mould used be of slightly different form from that necessary to produce a similar packet but without an integral tear strip.

Such packets will in the majority of cases be printed to indicate the nature and origin of their contents, and at the same time printing may be applied to the tear strip to indicate its presence and/ or function.

In a simple and preferred form of the invention, adjacent to the free edge of the lid one can distinguish three bands, the outermost one being relatively thin, the next being thicker e.g. of thickness comparable to the thickness of the walls of the packet, and the third again being thinner. The first band, that adjacent to the free edge, is in use sealed to the body of the packet, and the next band serves as the tear strip, as when either end of it is pulled in such a way as to peel it ofi", it is broken free of the packet by rupture of adjacent parts of the thin bands.

In order that the invention may be well understood, a preferred embodiment thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette packet of the hinged-lid or flip-top variety after filling and before it is closed and sealed.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the packet of FIG- URE 1, when it has been closed and sealed and opening by removal of the tear strip has been commenced; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view, on a larger scale, of the packet of FIGURES 1 and '2, shown partly in section.

The packet shown comprises a body 1 hingedly c011- nected to a lid 2 and suitably dimensioned to receive a bundle 3 of cigarettes wrapped in foil. The hinged connection between the lid and body is moulded integral with a rear wall 4 of the lid and :a rear wall 5 of the body, the whole packet being moulded from a synthetic plastic material e.g. rubber-modified polystyrene. The lid has a front wall 6 which is rather deeper than its rear wall 4, while the body has a front wall 7 which is correspondingly less deep than its rear wall 5. The body, however, has extensions 8, 9 of its front and side walls, said extensions 8, 9 being overlapped by the lid 2 when the latter is closed. It will be noted that the body extensions 8, 9 are slightly set back as compared with the walls of the body proper, this enables the outer surfaces of the lid and body to be flush when the lid is closed.

The lid 2 has a specially formed edge portion, comprising three parallel bands it 11, 12. Immediately adjacent to the free edge of the lid (which it will be understood extends along its front and both sides) is the band It), which is relatively thin; next to this is the band 11 0 which is thicker, and finally is the band 12 which again is thin.

The exact relationship of the several thicknesses in any particular case is in part determined by the particular material used, but as a rough guide it may be said that the band 11 can be made of the same thickness as the majority of the front wall 6 of the lid, while the bands 10, 12 may be made about half that thickness.

It is preferred that at least one end of the band 11 should have a projection 11a (FIGURE 3).

When such a packet has been filled and its lid is closed, the band 19 of its lid may be sealed by adhesive or by welding to the front wall 7 and side walls of the body 1. This makes the packet for all practical purposes air tight and moisture tight. When a user requires access to the contents, he may grip the projecting portion 11a of the band 11 and pull it away from the packet with a peeling motion; in FIGURE 2 the packet is shown as it would be immediately after such an action had been started. The material of the bands 10, 12 tears due to the smaller thickness of these bands, so that the band 11 functions as a tear strip, being completely removed from the packet once the peeling action referred to has been completed. The packet may then be opened and closed as desired, by simple movement of the lid, as with any of the established forms of hinged-lid cigarette packets. Once the band 11 has been removed, it will be clear that even with the lid closed the packet is not completely sealed, but the overlap between the lid and the body extensions 8, 9 provides a more than adequate seal for the time which is likely to elapse between removal of the band 11 and completion of consumption of the contents of the packet.

It will be seen that a packet embodying the invention is of simple form and yet provides the notable advantage of aniextrernely effective seal, for protection of its contents, throughout the shelf life, i.e. the period from packing and sealing the packet to its first opening by the uitiniate consumer. Such a packet has particular advantage when used for cigarettes, because of the importance of avoiding undue variation of the moisture content of this commodity during storage, but a packet embodying the invention may also be employed with advantage for packing many other articles.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: 3

1. A packet for cigarettes or the like comprising a lid and a body both of plastic material, in which said lid has an edge portion adapted to overlie said body when the lid is closed and a tear strip integral with and lying between said edge portion and the remainder of the lid, said tear strip being longitudinally bounded by weak bands and being thicker than said adjacent weak bands to permit the tear strip to be torn free of the packet along its longi tudinal edges by rupture of said adjacent weak bands.

2. A packet as claimed in claim 1, in which the lid has a hinged connection to the body.

3. A packet as claimed in claim 2, in which said hinged connection extends across at least a substantial portion of the width of a rear wall of the packet and the tear strip and adjacent weak bands extend along the free edge of the lid.

4. A packet as claimed in claim 1, including at least one small projection from said tear strip.

5. A packet as claimed in claim 3, in which the tear strip includes at least one small projection at one end of the free edge of the lid.

6. A packet for cigarettes or the like comprising a lid and a body both of plastic material, said lid having an integral marginal portion at least a part of which is adapted to overlie said body when the lid is closed, said marginal portion comprising three parallel and contiguous bands, the band adjacent the edge of said lid being capable of being secured to said body, the central band being thicker than said adjacent bands and serving as a tear strip whereby said tear strip may be torn free of the packet along its longitudinal edges by rupture of said adjacent bands.

7. A packet as claimed in claim 6 wherein said tear strip is substantially twice the thickness of said adjacent bands.

8. A packet as claimed in claim 6 wherein said lid has a longitudinally hinged connection to said body and said marginal portion of said lid extends around said lid from opposite ends of said hinged connection.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,099,382 7/1963 Talbert 22944 3,113,666 12/1963 Will 2295l X 3,197,115 7/1965 Peter 229-5l DONALD F. NORTON, Primary Examiner. 

